Share this Article

Tags:

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended granting of marketing authorisations for the first two monoclonal antibody biosimilars.

In one of the busiest CHMP meetings of 2013 so far, the Committee recommended ten new medicines for approval, including the first two monoclonal antibody biosimilars, and a new advanced therapy medicine. These medicines are intended for patients suffering from diseases including cancer, multiple sclerosis and other auto-immune diseases.

Remsima and Inflectra both contain the same known active substance, infliximab. In the application dossiers, they have been shown to be similar to the biological medicine Remicade, a monoclonal antibody that has been authorised in the European Union since 1999. Remsima and Inflectra are recommended for authorisation in the same indications as Remicade, covering a range of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis and and psoriasis.

Monoclonal antibodies are structurally complex substances that can locate and bind to specific molecules, in the case of infliximab to tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha, a protein promoting inflammatory response, which causes many of the clinical problems associated with autoimmune disorders. It is the first time that the biosimilar concept has been successfully applied to such a complex molecule, resulting in the recommended approval of a biosimilar version of infliximab. The biosimilar concept foresees that a biological medicine can be authorised if it can be demonstrated that it is a close copy of a biological medicine that has already been authorised for use in the European Union.

Since the approval of the first biosimilar medicine in Europe in 2006, the regulatory framework in place for the approval of biosimilars has produced a total of 12 authorised biosimilar medicines. The framework consists of a number of overarching guidelines which define and describe key concepts of biosimilar development programmes. The overarching guidelines are complemented by product- specific guidelines, which give more detailed guidance to applicants in relation to the respective class of products.

The product-specific guideline for monoclonal antibodies has been in force since December 2012. As for all biosimilars, the emphasis in the development programme is on demonstrating comparability to the reference medicine. An applicant has to submit studies to the Agency that show that the medicine is a biosimilar of the reference medicine, i.e. that it does not have any meaningful differences from the reference medicine in terms of its quality, safety and efficacy.

Applicants are also required to implement a risk-management plan to confirm the long-term efficacy and safety of a biosimilar, including the detection of any unexpected rare adverse effects when the medicine is used in clinical practice.

The CHMP opinions on Remsima and Inflectra will now be sent to the European Commission for adoption of a marketing-authorisation decision.

Share an Article?

Writing an article is not only a great way to share your knowledge, but it is also a great way to give back to the community.

We value all our contributors and if you have a website, we will surely give a link back to your site and products. Wanna contribute?

Suggestions?

Biosimilar News was started for the people who are interested in this rapidly growing business area. So if you have suggestions or feedback on how we can improve, please let us know. If you want to see a specific topic covered, answer to a specific question, or anything else of this sort, just write us. We do our best to keep up! Make a suggestion now!